The Night Before
by muggle405
Summary: When Cagalli wakes up with a hangover and an unexplained surprise, she must struggle to remember what happened the night before. AC, KL, DM
1. The Night Before

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED/Destiny or any of the characters within this fic unless otherwise indicated.**

Cagalli Yula Attha had had a bad week.

On Monday, her boyfriend of two years had broken up with her. On Tuesday, she'd seen him out with another girl, having coffee in her favorite cafe. Well, she certainly wouldn't be going there again, now would she? Wednesday brought the first of her final exams, which she was sure she had failed due to the distractions of Monday and Tuesday. Thursday morning, her car wouldn't start, which would have made her late for an exam had she not been able to catch a ride with her roommate, Miriallia Haw. Finally, Friday rolled around, bringing with it the last of her exams and a forced dinner with her father who was bound and determined to convince her to join his company after graduation.

So, on Saturday, when she woke up with a headache and an extreme sensitivity to light, she wasn't really surprised.

She couldn't remember how many drinks she'd had the night before, nor which bar she'd gone to. For that matter, she couldn't remember how she'd gotten home, but a quick glance around her assured her that she was, in fact, in her own room, sleeping in her own bed and without any unwanted company. Thank God for small favors.

Cagalli stumbled out of bed and over to the window to yank the curtains closed to block out the light before making her way into the adjoining bathroom to splash cold water on her face. When she straightened and wiped the water from her face with a towel, she noticed she had even changed into the pajamas the night before. It was odd that she couldn't remember any of it.

She tossed the used towel into the dirty clothes bin on her way into the kitchen and vaguely noted that she'd need to do laundry some time soon.

When she entered the kitchen she found her roommate already seated at the table with a bowl of cereal.

"Where were you last night?" Miriallia asked as Cagalli made her way to the medicine cabinet and began to search for something to relieve the throbbing pain in her head.

"At some bar apparently," she replied as she poured herself a glass of water and tipped the bottle of aspirin over to shake a few into her palm. She was interrupted by a sudden high pitched squeal from Miriallia. Cagalli winced and brought her free hand up to massage her temples. "What the hell was that about?"

"Oh my god, Cagalli, is that what I think it is?"

"Is _what _what you think it is?"

Miriallia was soon at her side, pulling Cagalli's left hand towards her and examining it. "It is!" she exclaimed. "That's a wedding ring! Why didn't you say something, Cagalli?"

It took all of Cagalli's willpower not to choke on the pills she had just swallowed at that proclamation. She lifted her hand to eye level and, sure enough, there was a golden band around the fourth finger of her left hand. How the hell had she not noticed that before?

"I didn't know." Cagalli answered after a moment, still staring at the ring in question.

"What do you mean you didn't know?"

"Just that. I didn't know."

"How could you not know that you got married?"

Cagalli motioned to the bottle of aspirin. "Well, I'm not taking these just for the hell of it. I woke up with a hangover, so I don't really remember much from last night."

"Oh...well, we can figure this out..."Miriallia began as she guided Cagalli over to sit at the table. "What do you remember from yesterday?"

Cagalli put her hands to her head and thought back. What did she remember? "Well...I took my last exam and took the bus home since I knew you still had another exam and my car's still in the shop...And there was a message on the answering machine from my dad. He wanted me to meet him for dinner."

Miriallia nodded. "Yeah, I got your note about that when I got home."

"Right...Well, we got into an argument as usual. He still wants me to come join his company after graduation...So I left right after dinner and got a taxi to take me home..."

"Except you didn't come home. At least, you weren't here when I went to bed around midnight."

"So I must have stopped somewhere between the restaurant and here...The question is where.. There's at least five different bars on the way."

"I would imagine your **husband** would know."Miriallia said with a smirk.

"That's another question...If I got married last night, then to who? And where is he? Maybe I didn't. Maybe I just found the ring somewhere and meant to turn it into the lost and found, but I forgot..."

"Or maybe..." Miriallia cut in. "Ahmed was at the bar you went to, you got back together, and eloped."

"No. Definitely not...At least...I don't think so..." Cagalli said with less certainty. Oh, why couldn't she remember?

"It's ok. We can fix this. We'll just call every bar you would have passed and ask if they remember seeing you. Once we find the right one, we ask if you left with anyone, then we track down your husband, you get an annulment, and problem solved."

Cagalli nodded her consent to the plan and Miriallia got up to get the phone book from the living room.

It was then that they heard footsteps on the landing outside the apartment door and heard a key turn in the lock. That in itself wasn't unusual as Miriallia's fiance, Dearka Elsman, also had a key to the apartment.

But it wasn't Dearka who entered. It was Athrun Zala, carrying a box of donuts and two cups of coffee.

He looked at Cagalli as he entered, smiled, and said, "Good morning, wife."

**A/N:**

**Okay, so this is just something I wrote on a lark to help relieve my writer's block. Whether or not I continue this story depends on the response I get from reviewers.**

**Also, to readers of Once Upon a Time, I'm really sorry I haven't updated in so long. I know I only have 2 chapters left of the story, and I know what needs to happen in each of those, but I've hit a bit of a snag in the research I've been doing for the 14th chapter. **

**As always, R&R!**


	2. The Morning After

_"Good morning, wife."_

It took Cagalli several moments to compose herself after this unexpected revelation, during which Miriallia could be heard muttering, "Oh my God..." over and over. Of all the people Cagalli could have been married to, Athrun Zala would have been Miriallia's last guess. The two had been enemies since high school, despite the fact that Athrun was the best friend of Cagalli's brother, Kira.

"What the hell are you doing here, Zala?" Cagalli demanded once she'd recovered from the initial shock.

He shrugged and walked over to the table as if he didn't have a care in the world where he deposited the coffee and box of doughnuts. "Bringing you breakfast, obviously."

"Not _here_ in my apartment. In Orb! Shouldn't you be off running some big corporation, far, _far _away?"

Athrun pulled out one of the chairs and sat down at the table, only to have Cagalli shout "Don't even think about getting comfortable! You're not staying."

He opened the box and pushed it across the table towards her. "Doughnut?"

"No...I. do. not. want. a. doughnut." she said through gritted teeth. "Just tell me why you're here." She heard the click of a door and looked up to see that Miriallia had gone into her own room. Cagalli was sure she wasn't imagining the fits of laughter she heard coming from behind the door.

He leaned back in his chair, smirking. "Is that any way to greet your husband?" he teased. "You seemed perfectly happy to see me last night."

"I was very, _very_, drunk last night in case you failed to notice. I probably didn't even know who you were."

"You called me by my name."

"I was still drunk and therefore cannot be held responsible for my actions."

"Fair enough, but to answer your question, I'm here for the wedding." He nodded towards Miriallia's closed door.

"But that's still weeks away!" Cagalli protested. "You could have just flown in the night before. I'm sure you're very busy at work."

Seeing that she wasn't going to accept the doughnut any time soon, Athrun pulled the box back towards himself and took one out. "I was overdue for a vacation anyway and I thought it would be nice to spend some time with everyone. Besides, I've arranged meetings with several important clients from Orb while I'm here. In fact," he glanced at his watch. "I'm meeting with one for lunch in half an hour. I'm sorry to have to leave you on the first day of our honeymoon, but this shouldn't take long."

Cagalli watched him get up and start towards the door. "Good riddance." She stood and started for the door as well. "You go do that and by the time your done, I'll have the annulment papers ready for your signature."

"I hate to break it to you, but I think all the lawyers' offices may be closed. It is, in fact, Saturday."

Cagalli froze in her tracks. He was right. She was married to Athrun Zala and there wasn't a damned thing she could do about it until Monday morning.

When he reached the door, he turned back to face her, still smiling pleasantly as if it were the most normal thing in the world to wake up married to your high school enemy. "Oh, and, dearest, I borrowed your key this morning to have a copy made. I hope you don't mind."

She caught the key he tossed back to her. "I guess I'll be having the locks changed then." she said, smiling back just as pleasantly. "Miriallia, call a locksmith."

"On it!" was heard from the next room, proving that Miriallia had, in fact, been listening to the entire exchange from the other side of the doorway.

After Cagalli slammed the door behind him, she heard him laughing all the way to the elevator.

* * *

><p>Miriallia waited several minutes after she heard the front door shut before exiting her room cautiously. She found Cagalli sitting on the couch, rhythmically bumping the back of her head against the wall behind her.<p>

"That's not going to help your headache any."

Cagalli let out a sigh of exasperation and opened her eyes. "Of all the people...why him? I would have even preferred that purple-haired freak from school..."

"You don't mean that."

"You're right. I don't. But it's close."

"It's only for two days...And he's not that bad. He's one of the most eligible bachelors right now." Miriallia pointed to one of the magazines strewn across the coffee table, which bore Athrun's picture on the front. Cagalli had tried to throw it away when it arrived, but Miriallia said she liked the articles in it. "And he's pretty good looking, too."

"Fine. I'll divorce him and you can marry him."

Miriallia laughed and shook her head. She picked up a doughnut and took a bite. "These are really good. You should eat one."

"I don't feel like eating."

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad. It's not like anyone will ever know."

As if on cue, Cagalli's cell phone began to ring. She glanced at the caller id. Kira.

"Hello?"

_"Why didn't you tell me you were getting married?"_

"What? No 'hello'? No 'good morning, dearest sister, and how are you today'?"

"_Don't change the subject, Cagalli."_

"I didn't know I was getting married and I'm not staying married long anyway."

Miriallia could hear Kira's laughter all the way across the room.

"_So it is true?" _More laughter. "_I thought for sure it was a joke, but I always thought you and Athrun were sort of perfect for each other anyway."_

"We are no such thing. And who told you anyway?" Cagalli noticed Miriallia's gulp just before she heard the answer.

"_Dearka."_

"Excuse me while I murder my roommate." Cagalli flipped the phone shut, silencing the laughter still coming from it, and turned her attention to Miriallia, who had carefully moved so that the table now stood between them.

"Okay, so I _may_ have texted Dearka while I was in my room...but he wasn't supposed to tell anyone else."

"Apparently your fiance can't keep a secret. I could have told you that. Remember when Yzak admitted that he liked Shiho and Dearka texted her and the rest of us to let us know?"

"How could I forget? Dearka had a black eye for the week after that."

Cagalli sighed. "I'm sure he's called everyone else by now...I'm never going to hear the end of this, am I?"

"Probably not."

"I'm never drinking again."

"You don't mean that either."

**Author's Note:**

**Thank you to everyone for the great response I got to the first chapter. I hope this explains a little more since I know several of you were confused. I'll eventually explain what actually happened that night in a later chapter. **

**As I have not planned this fic out in advance at all, I will update whenever I decide what to write next. I can guarantee it won't be for several more days at least since I have a cousin coming into town to stay with me for a week.**

**Until then!**

**As always, please R&R!**


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